The Magic of Time A Harry Potter fanfiction
by keepitsafeandslow
Summary: Teddy Lupin desperately wanted to know his family. Victoire Weasley desperately wanted Teddy to love her as much as she did him. So when he asks her to join him on the adventure of a lifetime to find a way to know his deceased parents, Victoire can't help but accept. But if they thought that the journey to the past would be easy, they had another thing coming...
1. Chapter 1

Teddy Lupin had been one year old when he first met his best friend. Granted, at the time, he sincerely disliked her for three reasons that he had considered extremely serious. His first reason being that it was because of her that, instead of staying the night with his godfather, Harry Potter, like it had been planned, he had to sleep in a very uncomfortable car seat while Harry drove them to the hospital. His second reason was that all of the people who had been like family to Teddy were completely ignoring him, which was unacceptable to him to say the very least. Finally, the third reason, and possibly the most important one, was the mere fact that when he met her for the first time, she highly resembled the look of an oversized, squishy, bald rat wrapped tightly in a bundle of pink cloth. Everyone else, however, did not seem to share his opinion.

"She's beautiful!" squealed Ginny, who had a few tears running down her face as she clutched Harry's hand tightly in her own.

Teddy's gaze shifted to his Grandma Weasley, who also was staring down at the ugly thing in the blankets with tears shining on her cheeks. Teddy still couldn't understand what was so special about this uninvited baby. She had made Fleur complain about being fat for a very long time and also snap at anyone who tried to comfort her, making her very unpleasant company.

Teddy squinted hard at the baby, trying to see what everyone else saw. Finally he gave up and looked at Harry.

"Is she going to get pwettier?" he asked, still unable to pronounce his r's correctly. George Weasley, who was standing close beside Teddy, nearly doubled over with laughter. Harry joined in and ruffled Teddy's hair.

"Don't you worry, Teddy. She'll be beautiful when she grows up. She might even steal _your _heart," Harry teased. Teddy made a face in disgust and shook his head. He could hardly see this rat-looking little baby growing to look remotely pretty. Harry chuckled again and lifted Teddy into his arms.

"What's hew name?"

"Victoire," said Bill, absolutely beaming, "Victoire Weasley."

"V-Vic-Victow-" Teddy tried to say, but failed to pronounce.

"Why don't you just call her Vic, Teddy?" Harry offered, smiling at his godson. Teddy nodded and looked back over at Victoire who was now cooing in Grandma Weasley's arms.

"I hope suwe she gets pwettier," said Teddy. The whole room roared with laughter, and Teddy, though he couldn't see much humor in this situation, laughed with them.

Over the years, much to Teddy's great relief, Victoire began to resemble a girl more and more. Soon after her birth, silvery-blonde hair had begun to sprout in wisps from her head and by the time she was two, it had grown down to her chin. She kept the look of delicacy and squishiness until she was about five, in which, she had grown very much from the size she was originally.

After Teddy established that Victoire was not going to grow up to be a giant rat after all, he and she became practically joined at the hip as they both grew from tiny little toddlers to rambunctious children, not even letting Victoire's own younger siblings, Domonique and Louis, come between them.

By the time that they were both in Hogwarts, Victoire was nursing a small crush for Teddy, while he only saw her as his best friend. Determined not to ruin their friendship, she kept it to herself, though, by her third year (Teddy was in his fourth), it was obvious to everyone but Teddy himself.

During Christmas break of the very year that her crush on Teddy became so obvious, Victoire was spending most of it in the Potter's house, watching Harry and Ginny's three kids, James, Albus, and Lily. She was braiding Lily's hair one afternoon while Harry and Ginny were working when Lily said out of the blue, "Do you really love Teddy, Vicky?"

Victoire fumbled on the braid. Instead of starting over, she picked Lily up and put her on her lap.

"What are you talking about, Lily? Where'd you get that idea?" Victoire asked. Lily grinned.

"Mummy said so! She was telling Daddy all about it! She says that you've loved him since forever!"

Victoire smiled and shook her head. "I don't _love_ him, Lily. It's only a crush. Kind of like what you had with Lorcan Scamander."

"It was Lysander," she giggled. "And you and Teddy are different, though!"

"How?"

"You guys are old." Victoire laughed and ruffled Lily's wavy red hair. She leaned in near Victoire's ear and, like she was revealing a huge secret, she added quietly, "And he talks about you all the time while he's here. He doesn't do that with anyone else, so he must like you."

Victoire looked down at her young, naive cousin and wished nothing more than her words to be true. But Victoire was mature enough to know when feelings were mutual and when they weren't, and in this case they definitely were not. That didn't stop Victoire from asking her Aunt Ginny about this, though, when she and Harry returned from work that evening, though.

"Staying for dinner, Victoire?" Harry asked, shrugging his fleece jacket off. Victoire shook her head.

"No thanks, Uncle Harry. I have a question for you, though, Aunt Ginny," Victoire said. Albus and James darted past the three and Harry went after them, telling them to not run in the house. Ginny ushered Victoire into the sitting room.

"What's on your mind?" Ginny said, sitting on the loveseat.

Victoire curled up on the armchair and said, "I heard you were telling Uncle Harry that I'm in love with Teddy and have been since forever." She batted her eyelashes and waited for her aunt's response.

"That girl," she muttered. "I told her not to tell you what I was telling Harry."

"Well, now you've put that insane idea in her head," Victoire teased. "And she seems to think that he likes me back."

Ginny smiled. "Well, I may have exaggerated when I said that you loved him, but I don't think that she's exaggerating when she says that he likes you. She's a very observant child, Lily."

"Right, right. I'm supposed to go for Teddy based on the opinion of a five-year-old. And here, I was thinking that I just had to wait for him to admit it to me. My mistake."

"So you do like him, then?"

Victoire's face went as red as Ginny's hair and she looked at the floor. Ginny nodded knowingly, still beaming.

"I knew it," she said. "I just knew that you had feelings for him!"

"Alright, so I like him a lot. But there's nothing I can do about it. He doesn't feel the same for me," Victoire sighed.

Ginny patted her niece's shoulder comfortingly. "Victoire, d'you know about when Uncle Harry and I actually met during my first year at Hogwarts?" Victoire shook her head. "Well, let's just say I was a bit starstruck."

"Starstruck?" repeated Harry, walking into the sitting room with Albus attached to his back. "You got wide-eyed and ran out of every room you saw me in and then wrote about me in a diary for almost a year."

Ginny made a face at him. "Okay, so I had a bit of an obsession, but that died down after a few years and I became normal again."

"It took until her fourth year until she could speak to me properly," Harry said, grinning and sitting beside his wife with Albus now on his lap.

"Anyway," Ginny said, giving Harry a friendly push. "He tried to block out a lot of people from his life that same year, but I wouldn't let him, you see. I knew so much of how he was feeling that year, when he thought that Lord Voldemort was possessing him because I went through the very same thing my first year. He tried to get us all to give up on him, but we wouldn't. I especially wouldn't."

"That was the day that I knew that I was probably going to fall hard for her," Harry reminisced, grabbing Ginny's hand. Ginny leaned against his arm. "And fall hard, I did."

"So what does this have to do with me and Teddy?" asked Victoire, slightly impatient. She loved her aunt and uncle and all, but if they got too lovey dovey in front of her, she would probably vomit all over their son.

"Just don't give up on Teddy. You have to be there for him. Through every mishap, every adventure, every laugh and cry. You need to be more than just his best friend. You need to be the one he can depend on for anything and everything, no matter how wild. I did and just look at how I turned out."

"The Weasleys have a funny way of making people fall in love with them," Harry noted.

Victoire nodded. She was very thankful to have her family's advice on the matter, especially since nearly all of them in the future, when she began to seek more of it, said the same thing: "Be with him through every adventure and one day he'll realize how in love with you he is."

It was that advice that, during Victoire's fifth year led her to say yes when Teddy asked her the extremely vague and slightly untruthful question that brought them on their wildest adventure yet:

"Will you help me with a little project I've been working on?"

How that "little project" would affect their lives, neither knew. Only one thing seemed to be certain.

Nothing would ever be the same.


	2. Chapter 2

Around two weeks after Teddy had asked Victoire for her help did he finally clue her in on his entire plan. His worries of her not exactly taking it lightly were confirmed the moment his confession left his mouth.

"You want to do _what_?" she practically yelled.

Teddy shushed her and looked around the common room. Thankfully, they were the only two in Gryffindor tower up.

"I want to go back in time to save my parents –"

"Yes, I heard you the first time." She slammed the book she was using to look for spells in shut and rubbed her forehead. "Teddy, I cannot believe this. You lied to me! We're supposed to be best friends and you lied to me!"

"I didn't technically lie. I mean, I told you that we were using the time traveling spells for something important."

"You made it sound like a project for a class, though!"

"I know," Teddy sighed. He looked up into her big blue eyes and took her hands in his. "And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry it isn't even funny. But you know how much I miss my parents and how much I think about them and I know that this is the only shot I've got to save them. They died saving me all those years ago, and now I'd like to try to save them. Will you help me? Please, Vic?"

Victoire, her palms sweaty from nerves, took her hands out of his and stood up. She paced the room, thinking.

"You know the stories that Aunt Hermione told us about her third year – the one about the Timeturner and saving Sirius. She told us that sometimes changing things can really mess the future up." She paused again, remembering her Aunt Ginny's words to her two years ago:

"_You need to be the one he can depend on for anything and everything, no matter how wild."_

Victoire sighed and turned to Teddy. His head has in his hands and his elbows were resting on his knees. He was obviously very anxious at waiting for her response.

"But if you're willing to go on the adventure, I'm right beside you," she finally said. Teddy's head shot up and she was overwhelmed with the urge to smile at his childlike expression of glee. Before she got the chance to, he stood up suddenly and swept her off of her feet in a bone-crushing hug. She was dizzy when her feet touched the ground again, and it was not from the hug. She laughed giddily and smiled up at him.

"You are the absolute best, Vic! I love you!" he said, proceeding to then kiss both of her cheeks. She resorted to pacing in order to hide her reddening cheeks.

"I remember Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron talking about something at dinner over the holidays. Obviously I didn't think it was that important then, but given the circumstances now..." She looked up at Teddy and saw him grimace. She took it as his apology. "The Ministry has been working on new timeturners...And I think Uncle Harry said that they've asked him to hide the sample one they've built until they're ready to test it at the Ministry."

Teddy's eyes grew to the size of diamonds.

"Are you serious?" he said. Victoire nodded and he grinned. "Victoire, that's great! We can get going by our next break and be back before anyone even notices it's missing!"

"Teddy, don't forget, it's a_ test _timeturner and Uncle Harry has it hidden somewhere completely top secret. I'm sure not even Aunt Ginny knows. It'd take months of digging around his house just to find it."

Much to Victoire's surprise, Teddy smiled. She raised a thin eyebrow inquisitively.

"Do you really underestimate your cousins that much, Vic?" Teddy said, plopping himself onto the couch. Victoire took the seat next to him.

"Do you really think they know where it is?" she asked doubtfully.

"I think if anyone would, it's them. Maybe it's time to send dear, young James a letter."

After a bit more begging and a pouty face that Teddy knew Victoire couldn't resist, they had written their letter to James and were on their way to the owlery. The sky outside the owlery was dark and the only signs of the approaching morning was the slight sun poking its way over the horizon.

This wasn't the first time that they'd stayed up nearly all night together. As children, they used to challenge the other to who could stay up the latest and going into their teenage years they would just talk or study, especially on the weekends in school or on break.

For a moment, Teddy noticed the light catch Victoire's bluebell-colored eyes and smiled, but immediately snapped himself out before her Veela charm went too far with him.

_We are just friends,_ he kept repeating in his head.

Even so, he couldn't help but admire her as she attempted to call her owl down from the post it was so happily perched and sleeping on.

"Come on, Kiwi. Come here, girl," she cooed encouragingly. Kiwi stuck her head out from under her wing, but didn't move. Victoire frowned and turned to Teddy, who was chuckling. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing," he said quickly, putting his hands up in defense. The smirk on his face said otherwise, though. She pierced him with a glare that was so obviously inherited from Grandma Weasley and he finally cracked. "I just still can't believe that you named your owl after a fruit."

She rolled her eyes playfully and said, "I was seven and my mother insisted that I name it something that I never get tired of, and I'm still not tired of kiwis, now am I?"

"I still say that you should've named it Teddy," he teased. "I mean, you aren't tired of me yet, are you?"

"Wait until after this 'little project' and we'll see," she replied with a laugh. He grinned and, unsurprisingly, Victoire blushed. "Where's your owl?"

Teddy looked around, spotted a specked barn owl, and shouted, "Bosley, come!" The owl didn't even bother lifting its head.

"With a name like Bosley, I wouldn't come out either," Victoire snorted. Teddy pushed her gently.

"Oh, shut it. I don't see Kiwi flying to your aid."

Victoire flicked her silky blonde hair over her shoulder and turned back to Kiwi.

"Kiwi, if you don't come here now, I'll use one of the school owls to deliver my letter," she said threateningly. The owl instantly flew down and held out its leg. Victoire turned back to Teddy, smirking.

"Shut it," he repeated and they laughed.

Together, they tied the letter to Kiwi and leaned against the window to watch as she faded to a speck in the distance. It almost felt too quiet for it to really be Victoire and Teddy, the dynamic duo from infants to teenagers, in the room. It was only timidly that Victoire brought up the issue that was bothering her.

"Teddy, what are we going to do when we get the timeturner?" she asked, tilting her head toward him.

It took a moment before Teddy answered, without looking at her, "We're going back to the battle and we're going to save them. There's nothing else to it."

"And if we can't save them?"

"Then everything will stay exactly the same, won't it?"

Victoire sighed and moved so that she was right next to Teddy. He finally turned so that he was facing her directly. It was startling to Victoire how little space there was between them, but she pulled herself together quickly.

"Time is a tricky thing, Teddy. We don't know what we could mess up by changing this." Teddy opened his mouth to interrupt, but Victoire pressed on. "I'm still coming with you, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying, we'd better come up with a good plan to pull this off."

Unexpectedly, Teddy smiled and put his arm around Victoire's shoulders, leading her down from the owlery.

"You know, most girls would run from this very idea and never look back, but not you. This is why you're my best friend." He squeezed her and she rested her head on his shoulder. She gave a weak smile.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "Best friends..."

They walked back to Gryffindor common room, chatting idly about small things like History of Magic and quidditch. Neither found a single fault with the rest of their day, which was perfectly fine with them. Though neither would admit it, both knew that this would probably be their last carefree day until this entire "project" was over with.


	3. Chapter 3

It was a few days later when Teddy and Victoire received a reply from James. Again, when Kiwi came back with the letter, the two were in the common room working on homework when they heard the soft taps from Kiwi's beak against the glass of the window. Victoire nudged Teddy's leg and nodded toward it. Teddy walked over to the window, discretely opened it, and took the letter from the owl. As he sat down again, Victoire set aside her half-finished Potions essay and read with him silently.

_Vic and Teddy,_

_Of course I know where the timeturner is _("Told you," said Teddy, smirking). _Even little Lily could have figured out its hiding place. Dad likes to think he's good at hiding things, but he's no better than Albus hiding his crush on Mom's friend Luna._

_Anyway, let me know when you guys need it. I'd be glad to show you where it's hidden. Just make sure that, whatever you're doing with it, you get it back before Dad needs it for work. I'd say you'd have a few good months to do whatever you need to do with it, but don't take my word for it. Mom says that the Ministry is still very unstable, so they could decide they need it sooner. Either way, you didn't get this information from me._

_See you both next break – James_

They folded the letter carefully and Teddy slipped it into his pocket. He turned to Victoire and said quietly, "Never underestimate the sneakiness of your cousins."

"I don't know what I was thinking," Victoire replied sarcastically. "Underestimating an eleven year old."

He chuckled and ruffled her hair playfully as he got up. Victoire pushed his hand away and made a face.

"Just think," he whispered as he walked her to the girls' staircase. "This time next year, I'll have my parents back."

For the most part, Teddy and Victoire both believed his statement to be true. How could there be any other turnout than that? But still, even after they returned home for summer break, they waited until the fast-approaching end of it to finally take James up on his offer.

The night prior to this occasion, Victoire had spent the whole of it on the phone (Fleur had wanted to make the house more "Muggle friendly," as she put it) with Teddy and went to bed well past when everyone else was asleep. It only took her the short time that she curled up under her soft comforter to doze off, but it was easily disturbed by her sister, Dominique, shaking her.

"Wake up, Vicky," she said in a falsely cheery voice. Victoire threw a pillow at her sister's head and covered her face with the comforter.

Since they were children, Victoire and Dominique were always the worst at getting along. They were different from each other and it was obvious to anyone who so much as looked at them. Victoire had round, blue eyes with long blonde eyelashes and Dominique had bright brown eyes with red eyelashes. Victoire had pale blonde hair and clear, creamy skin and Dominique had vibrant red hair and freckles as far as the eye could see. Victoire was vintage fashion and Dominique was all about her funky wardrobe. Victoire was a Delacour and Dominique was a Weasley, and because of that Victoire had always been madly jealous of her younger sister.

It was one thing to be known for her Veela charms and beauty, but it was being known for bravery and daring nerves, like all Weasleys were, that Victoire really craved. But, in all of her sixteen years, it had been neglected from her and given instead to her incredibly chaotic, irrational sister. Perhaps proving that she, too, had the personality of a Weasley was another reason why she was so willing to take Teddy up on his challenge.

Dominique rolled her eyes at Victoire's antics and tore the blanket off of her. When Victoire groaned again, she said, "Mum said that you have to get up now. We're visiting the Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny in a few hours."

"Mmm," Victoire mumbled into her pillow.

Dominique rolled her eyes at her sister and turned to exit the room. Just before she reached the door, though, she smirked over her shoulder and said, "Teddy's coming over soon to visit with us."

It was amazing the effect that that simple sentence had on Victoire. Instantly, her eyes opened wide and she leaped out of bed. Dominique chuckled and left her sister's room, shutting the door behind her. With astounding speed, Victoire stripped off her pajamas, tossed on her robe, and scurried into the bathroom, just barely beating her brother to it. She ignored Louis as he pounded on the door and took a very quick shower. Afterward, she slipped back on the formerly discarded robe, brushed her teeth, and ran a brush through her soaked blonde locks. Louis was still slamming his fist on the door when Victoire finally emerged.

"Well it took ya long enough!" Louis huffed, moving into the bathroom. Victoire stuck her tongue out at her younger brother.

Louis Weasley also had all of the qualities of a Weasley, including the violently red hair and freckly skin. The only signs of any Delacour blood was his eyes, the exact same color and shape as Victoire's and their mother's.

Quietly, Victoire walked back into her room and nearly shrieked when she saw Teddy sitting on her bed, blushing beat red because of Victoire's attire, or lack thereof.

"S-sorry, I came a little earlier than expected and Dom told me to wait in here," he began to stutter.

Victoire held the robe tight to her chest and mumbled, "It's, uh, it's fine." She smiled awkwardly at him and he chuckled slightly, making it an effort to look at the ground now.

"Why don't I, um, go and let you get ready? Just call me in when you're dressed and what-not."

Victoire giggled and nodded. "Will do."

Teddy sidled out of the room quickly, giving Victoire a quick grin before he shut the door. Victoire covered her red face with her hands as soon as he left, feeling nothing but mortification. She could have strangled Dominique for what she'd done. Instead of pursuing this lovely fantasy, though, Victoire simply rummaged through her closet and quickly put on a pair of black shorts and a turquoise tanktop. She beckoned Teddy back into the room after she tossed her robe into her hamper.

"Sorry about that," he apologized sheepishly.

Victoire mumbled back unconvincingly, "It's no big deal."

"Gonna kill Dom for it later?"

"Most definitely."

Teddy chuckled and ran a hand through his currently violet head of hair. Victoire rolled her eyes playfully and pushed him gently, not as though it would have done anything to him if she had used all her force. If there was one thing that Victoire absolutely lacked, it was physical strength. Teddy, nonetheless, acted as though it deeply hurt him and put a hand over the spot she pushed. Victoire laughed and took her seat in front of her vanity.

"No need for the abuse, Vic. _I _didn't tell anyone to go into your room while you were indecent," he reminded her playfully, ruffling her damp hair. She made a face at him and brushed out the knots with her fingers.

"But you listened." Victoire started on her hair and had it tucked into a neat bun by the time she began to rant about her sister. "I don't know why she does this to me. I mean, what have I done to her?"

Teddy sunk onto the floor next to her and shrugged. "Maybe she's jealous?"

Victoire scoffed and turned to Teddy. "What is there possibly to be jealous of?"

"I don't know," Teddy teased, "I guess you're kind of cute, you know, if you're into perfect Veelas."

Quickly, Victoire looked at the ground, hiding the pink creeping back onto her cheeks. "Dom's part Veela, too, Teddy." She sighed and admitted, "And she's got everything a Weasley should have. I'm the one jealous of her."

Teddy lifted her chin with his finger and let his chocolatey brown eyes bore into her sea of blue. "So what that you don't have the Weasley red hair or every one of the family's freckles? It's not how you look that makes you a Weasley, it's what's inside."

She smiled coyly. "So I do have a Weasley's heart, then?"

"I was talking about the DNA, but, yeah, heart works, too," he grinned. Victoire hit him on the arm, laughing.

"You are so not funny."

"I don't know," he teased. "I think I'm pretty hilarious." He leaned back against the wall and put his hands behind his head.

"Too bad no one else does," she said innocently.

Teddy lifted his eyebrows in mock surprise. "Oh really?" Victoire nodded and smirked.

Unexpectedly, Teddy shot up from his spot and grabbed Victoire from her seat. Victoire shrieked at the abruptness of this, but began to laugh moments later as Teddy began to tickle her sides.

"Admit I'm hilarious!" he demanded.

"Never!" Victoire shouted back, barely breathing from the stitch in her side.

"Say it!"

"No!"

Over the laughter between the two of them, they heard Victoire's mother, Fleur, call, "Keeds, time to leave!"

Teddy gave a huff and said, helping Victoire up, "You've gotten lucky this time, Vic."

Victoire grinned and slipped on her sandals before the two walked out of her bedroom to join the family in the sitting room. Her parents were standing on either side of the fireplace with Louis and Dominique occupying the cushions of the loveseat. Victoire paid no attention to her sister's slight smirk.

"Alright, guys. Let's get going. Aunt Ginny said that she'll have lunch ready for us around noon and it's five past," Bill informed them.

"Come on," Fleur said, ushering her kids and Teddy toward the fireplace. "Teddy, seence you are ze guest, you should go first."

Teddy nodded, smiling. "Thanks, Fleur."

Fleur nodded and held out the family's container of Floo Powder. Teddy grabbed a handful and threw it into the fire. He stepped into it seeing the emerald flames and said, very clearly, "The Potter home."

In a rush of blinding flames, Teddy was gone and Fleur was pushing her eldest child forward.

"You're next, Victoire," she said. Victoire followed Teddy's actions and found herself falling out of the fireplace at the Potter residence in mere minutes. Teddy was there to help her back to her feet.

"My knees will never not have bruises if I keep this up," Victoire said, rubbing her kneecaps. Teddy rolled his eyes, smiling, and escorted her to the nearest chair while the Potter children entered the room.

All three immediately threw themselves at Teddy, clearly being their favorite of the two because of all the time he spent there with his godfather. Teddy laughed and hugged all three of the kids at once. By the time they moved onto Victoire, the rest of her family had shown up. Ginny and Harry rushed into the room at the sound of the commotion.

After the rest of the hugs, kisses, and greetings given out to each guest, Ginny announced, "Sorry that lunch is running a bit late. Harry thought he'd try and make everything himself and, well, let's just say that we're all lucky to have not burned to death."

Harry rolled his eyes. "You're exaggerating, Gin. It wasn't nearly that bad."

"Stick to beating up bad guys, Daddy," Lily giggled. Harry lifted his daughter into his arms and kissed her forehead.

"Thank you for the input, Lily Luna."

She grinned toothily and Ginny said, "Come on, Lily. You can help me in the kitchen. Maybe you can give your father a few cooking lessons after we're done with lunch."

Harry smirked and passed Lily over to Ginny's arms. Ginny carried her out of to the kitchen, only to be followed moments later by Fleur who insisted on helping, dragging Dominique along. Harry enlisted the help of Bill and Louis in setting the table after another few minutes, leaving only Albus, James, Victoire, and Teddy left. Teddy caught Victoire's eye and nodded.

"James," he started slowly. "Would you mind showing Vic and I that _thing_ we talked about?"

It took James a minute to realize what he was talking about, but when he caught on, he nodded vigorously and began to show them out of the room until Albus stopped them.

"What thing?" he asked curiously, following his brother.

"Nothing, Al. Go and hang out with Dad or something," said James nonchalantly, waving his hand as if he was shooing away a pestering bug.

"But I want to come, too!"

"No way! You can't keep a secret to save your life!"

"But James...!"

"No!" James said firmly. Albus, tears filling his green eyes, ran away from them. Victoire looked after him sadly.

"You could have let him come along, James," Victoire said. "I'm sure he wouldn't have told."

James laughed. "You don't know Albus too well, then."

Not willing to risk James not showing them where the timeturner was, Victoire kept her mouth shut. When they reached the end of the hallway and stood in front of Harry's office door, James looked up at Victoire.

"Do you have a hairpin?" he asked, holding out his hand. Victoire took one out of her hair and gave it to him. James had the door open within seconds and tossed it back to her.

"Uncle George taught me that one. He told me that it really came in handy when he was underage," he informed them. Victoire grinned, imagining just how many times that her Uncle George had used that trick with his twin brother, Fred, before his untimely death.

They entered the room quietly and Teddy closed the door behind him. He remembered being in this room all the time when he was a kid, but didn't remember any place to hide something well. James apparently knew what he was doing, though, because he went straight for the bookshelf and pulled out a copy of _Hogwarts, A History_. Teddy and Victoire were hovering over him, giving each other quizzical looks. James opened the book and, much to their surprise, there was a huge chunk of pages taken directly from the inside of the book going nearly all the way to the back cover. Inside of the missing chunk just so happened to be the timeturner. James looked up at both of them, smirking.

"See? Dad's awful at hiding things."

Teddy nodded approvingly. "Good thing for us, then," he noted, nudging Victoire's arm. Victoire silently agreed.

"I'm sure Aunt Hermione had a proper fit about his degrading of the book," Victoire smirked. Teddy and James both laughed.

"Oh, she did. But Uncle Ron and Dad calmed her down," James grinned. "Do you think you can get it back by Christmas break?" He picked up the timeturner by its chain and dangled it in front of Teddy's face.

Taking the timeturner and stuffing it in his pocket, he replied, "Yeah, I think we can do that."

"Good," said James. "Now, let's get out of here before Dad catches us."

James led the way out of the room, locking the door behind all of them. Victoire and Teddy exchanged looks full of both excitement and nervousness.

Even though having the timeturner meant that Teddy would get to see his family again and possibly save their lives, it went without saying that if they were caught with this, the consequences would surely be worse than they could imagine.


	4. Chapter 4

The duo spent the months leading up to winter break researching everything they could about the time of Voldemort's second rise to power and his eternal downfall. They both figured that if they were going to go back and save Teddy's parents, then they might as well be prepared for what they may have to face. But the more time they spent together and the closer the break got, the more irritated they both seemed to become. Whether it was from nerves, stress, or simply just their constant presence around the other, it seemed as though all they ever did was fight. It wasn't until the very week before they left that they finally did agree to remain civil, and even then it was difficult for them.

"I think we should leave next week," Teddy announced as they both poured over their books in the Room of Requirement. Victoire's head snapped up and she stared at him in shock. He rolled his eyes, looking away from his book for only a second to acknowledge her. "Don't give me that look, Vic. We only have about two weeks left until break. If we don't do it next week, we never will."

Too used to him snapping at her now, she simply narrowed her eyes and replied in a falsely calm tone, "Well, don't you think it's a little sudden? I mean, we've hardly even thought about it."  
"That's why I've given you a week's notice to think about it," he replied, slamming his book shut with a loud clap. "But if you don't want to go, that's fine. I can go by myself."

"Oh, don't be stupid, Teddy," she snapped. Instant guilt washed over her, and she took a deep breath to relax herself. "Like I told you before, we're in this together."

She watched Teddy's jaw clench momentarily before he sighed, his hand running through his uncharacteristically dark brown hair. "Sorry. This whole thing's been taking its toll on me lately."  
"You and me both," she agreed, her eyes moving to look at the floor in front of him. "But don't ever say that I should just stay behind. You know that I'd never let you do this on your own."

A small smile flitted across his face. "You got it, Vic." An awkward silence fell between them and he drummed his fingers along the spine of the book he'd been studying. "So, next week? Just before we leave for break?"

She drew her knees to her chest and rested her head atop them. "I don't know, Teddy. I mean, it'll be here so quickly…"

"Please?" he asked, his eyes becoming larger and changing the color to a dark brown, becoming the most heart-wrenching pout Victoire had ever seen.

"Using Metamorphmagus abilities are cheating, Teddy," she complained, though she did manage a chuckle. "Fine, next week."

He scooted over to her, enveloping her in a tight hug. "You really are the best, you know that?" he told her, pulling back, a lopsided grin on his face. She could hardly help but return the smile.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now we just have a lot to plan with a little less than a week to do so."

He shrugged. "We're Vic and Teddy. We can do anything."

Teddy's statement only proved to be true as they spent their remaining time until departure preparing. They finished learning the necessary information, practiced dueling spells in case they were sucked into battle, and Victoire even dug out her old beaded bag that Aunt Hermione had given her as a birthday gift in the event that they were stuck there a little longer than they had planned. Teddy was amazed to find that it could fit virtually anything inside of it.

"Where'd you get this?" he asked, examining the bag with interest.

"Birthday present."

"From who?"

"Aunt Hermione."

"How does it work?"

"Undetectable expansion charm. Grandpa Weasley told us he used the same spell on his old Ford Anglia when Uncle Harry was in school, remember?"

"Not in the least."

It was amazing to see how considerably their spirits had lightened since deciding on the date they would leave. Even on the night of their departure, though they were both bundles of nerves, excitement still coursed through their veins, for Teddy especially. In just a few hours, he would see his parents again and he would be responsible for saving their lives. No thought was better to him.

So, at half past six in the afternoon, while everyone else was at dinner, Victoire and Teddy snuck off to the Room of Requirement. Victoire's beaded bag was filled with clothes, shoes, and money just in case things went awry and Teddy had memorized most of the facts in the books they'd read.

Now there they stood in the center of the Room of Requirement, hearts pounding faster due to adrenaline. Teddy reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out the timeturner, resting right beside his wand. Silently, he took the chain and hung it around both of their necks.

"Ready?" Teddy asked her, holding out his hand.

Victoire looked up at him, grinned, and took it. "Ready."

"How many times should I spin it?" He held the timeturner up to eye level and narrowed his eyes.

Knowing that these prototypes were much more powerful than the old ones, destroyed when Uncle Harry was in school, Victoire took a moment to think about it. "Try five times," she replied. "We can adjust if we need to once we stop."  
Teddy nodded and took a deep breath. Slowly, he turned the timeturner five times and the effect was damn near immediate.

The ground quaked beneath their feet suddenly, causing the timeturner to slip from his fingers. The world in front of them seemed to move in a blurred vision. It appeared as though the timeturner was doing its job until the shaking below their feet turned into violent jerks, more frequent and worse than the first time. Teddy held onto Victoire's hand instinctively and pulled her close to him so that he was able to cover her with his own body.

"Teddy!" he heard her shout over the whooshing sounds around them. The longer Teddy stared at his constantly changing surroundings, the sicker he felt, so he closed his eyes and tried to focus on only Victoire's voice amidst the chaos. "What's happening?"

"Hold on, Vic!" he instructed her, his arms tightening around her slight frame protectively.

At the very moment he said that, the ground seemed to vanish beneath them and they were suspended in midair. The rush of wind whistling past their ears, mixed with Victoire's (and admittedly Teddy's) screams, filled the air as their suspension broke and they fell straight down. Though both tried to hold onto the other, Teddy found his hands losing their grip on Victoire's. Teddy shouted her name and was sure he heard her shout his back, but her voice was already muffled by the wind. He outstretched his hands as far as they could go to reach her, but she was already gone, leaving him grasping the air instead.

And just as suddenly, it was all over.

Teddy hit the ground with a hard thud, his back landing so hard against the grass that the air momentarily left his lungs. He coughed a few times and sat up; trying to preserve whatever breath was left in his body as well as keep the new breath that was slowly refilling his lungs steady. Was he imagining the bright white sun above him or did he really somehow land outside? And where the hell was Victoire?

Trying to decipher where he was and how he would get back, his fingers immediately went to his chest to grab the timeturner. The lack of the cold chain on his throat, however, only proved his suspicions to be true. He had lost it.

_Great. Just great._ He decided silently that he would have to conduct a mass search for it later, knowing that he wouldn't be able to do it just yet, what with the massive headache that was slowly growing.

He blinked a few times, letting his vision focus and causing the black spots obscuring his eyes to fade. The first image he saw was that of Hogwarts castle and he sighed with relief.

_Good,_ he thought. _At least I didn't go wandering off too far._ But that just brought another troubling thought to his mind. _What if Victoire did?_

Teddy scrambled to his feet and made toward the castle, his head especially aching by this point. "Victoire!" he shouted. There was no response – not even a sound. Finding the dense silence peculiar, he looked around him for the first time. There was nothing, not a student, nor a teacher in sight; only the castle and the lake.

_Oh dammit. What did I just get myself into?_

"Victoire!" he shouted again. He heard a muffled call back from inside the school and, without thinking, he took off toward it in hopes of finding her, continuing to shout her name.

If she was injured, if something had happened to her, it was his fault. He convinced her to do this. She was only trying to be a good friend and help him. But if she was hurt…

His thoughts were brutally interrupted when he collided with someone. He and the stranger fell backward, Teddy knocking his head on the ground for the second time that day.

"Shit," he heard the other mumble in a deep voice. Teddy rubbed the back of his head, groaning, and propped himself up on his elbows to get a look at who he'd struck.

The person he knocked into looked very familiar with his messy dark hair and tall, skinny frame. The guy leaned down and picked up his discarded glasses on the ground, placing them back on and groaning. That's when Teddy froze in shock, realizing exactly who he resembled so greatly.

"Sorry, man. I was just coming to see what the shouting was about?" said the guy.

Teddy still looked at him in surprise, blinking a few times to make sure he wasn't just hallucinating from hitting his head so often within the hour. Once he was sure that he wasn't, he stammered out, "H-Harry?"

The guy's face contorted into one of confusion. "James, actually. James Potter." He held out his hand to help Teddy up while the color seemed to drain from Teddy's face. James seemed concerned. "You okay? You hit the ground pretty hard."

If Teddy was correct (and one could usually count on him to remember his facts) then the James Potter that wasn't Harry's son was Harry's father. And given the age that he looked, that would mean that he and, hopefully, Victoire were way before the year that they had intended to land in. But that was not the most important thought in his mind at that moment (though, admittedly, it was extremely significant).

"Have you seen a girl around here? She's blonde with blue eyes, about this tall –" he demonstrated Victoire's height with his hand "– and answers to Victoire."

Much to his relief, James nodded. "Yeah, Evans – the Head Girl – and I just ran into a girl like that a few minutes ago. I just left them when I heard you shouting. Last I checked, Evans was taking her up to the headmaster's office."

Teddy sighed from relief. "Can you take me there?" he asked, his tone almost begging.

"Yeah, sure," James said, shrugging. He began to walk and Teddy took this as his cue to follow.

He stayed a pace behind James at all times, taking in his surroundings, the man leading the way, and how much trouble he had gotten himself and Victoire into. After a few minutes of silently walking together, he noticed James casting a long, sideways glance at him.

"So that Victoire girl…is she your girlfriend?" James asked, searching for conversation after finding himself caught.

Teddy shook his head. "No, she's my best friend."

"Oh." James nodded. "She's cute. I was going to say that you were probably going to have to watch the other boys around this school. They'd be after her pretty quickly."

"We shouldn't be staying long, so it won't be an issue hopefully." He was still holding onto the shred of hope that Victoire may have somehow acquired the timeturner.

James nodded again and straightened up slightly; appearing to finally get to the question he had been waiting to get an answer to. "Yeah…so why are you here?

Teddy nearly laughed at James' inability to be covert. Nearly. Until he remembered that revealing the real reason he was here would probably land him in a psycho ward at St. Mungo's. "She and I are looking at different schools around the country. We're thinking about transferring from ours."

"Oh," he said, obviously satisfied with the answer. "Where are you transferring from?"

Teddy faltered a bit on the answer, hardly knowing any other wizarding school, so he said the first one that came to his mind. "Uh…Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts."

"Nice," James replied, impressed. "What were you there for?"

Teddy opened his mouth to stumble on yet another reply, when a shout came from the end of the corridor they had just turned onto.

"Potter!" the voice yelled toward them. Teddy looked up to find a girl with bright red hair and Harry's green eyes making her way toward them. Something told him he was about to meet Harry's mother.

"Evans," James acknowledged. The red-head rolled her eyes and stopped in front of them, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Where have you been? Not even twenty minutes after Dumbledore tells us to try and stick together, you run off!"  
James smirked. "You sound concerned," he noted. She narrowed her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. James immediately sighed and backed off. "I told you while you were helping that girl, Evans, I heard shouting from outside. I went to go check it out and found…" He looked at Teddy, eyebrows furrowed. "What did you say your name was again?"

"Teddy," Teddy replied quickly, wanting to go up the staircase to the headmaster's office and see Victoire as soon as possible. "Can we –"

"Where did you come from?" inquired Lily, switching her gaze to Teddy, her expression becoming somewhat softer.

"I-I came here to look at the school with my friend – the girl you brought up to the headmaster's office – but she and I got separated on our way here."

_At least it was half of the truth_.

Lily nodded slowly and turned back to James. "Let's introduce him to Dumbledore then, okay?"

James agreed and stepped in front of Lily toward the gargoyle guarding the entrance to the headmaster's office, which miraculously stayed open for all of them to pile back onto the winding staircase. Teddy filed in right after Lily and climbed the stairs as quick as the pair would let him. They had hardly even opened the door when a flash of Victoire's blonde hair shot between James and Lily and she threw herself into Teddy's arms.

Victoire was shaking, obviously from worrying about Teddy and where they ended up, but she pulled herself together enough to whisper in his ear, "Have they told you who they were?"

Teddy breathed back, "Yes."

They pulled apart and looked at each other long and hard in the eyes. Every fear, every trouble, every apprehension was completely readable to the other. Their ultimate question was just as obvious to the pair as well.

_What the hell have we done?_


End file.
